This invention deals with a method for stabilizing stacked loads against shifting as well as means for carrying out such stabilizing.
When carrying goods such as merchandise contained in cartons, crates, packages, bags and the like, they are commonly transported directly on trucks, railroad cars, carts or planes or on pallets or other portable platforms that may be readily handled by transfer equipment such as forklift trucks and transported by the above conveyances.
Invariably, such moving and transporting jostles or shakes stacked loads and may cause them to collapse not only resulting in such merchandise to suffer damage but also presenting a danger to persons handling such unstabilized stacked goods.
Various means have been suggested for overcoming the problem of shifting goods as typically represented by these references of interest:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,696,360 (Toffolon) teaches a binder and string assembly comprising four corner pieces made from heavy sheet material such as fabric or sheet plastic, said corner pieces being interconnected by adjustable length straps along the sides and over the top of the load; in addition, the bottom edge of the corner pieces ought to be attached to the pallet. The fastening system of this reference is cumbersome, expensive, time consuming and probably does not fully serve the purpose for which it was intended for lack of flexibility.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,815 (Macomber) deals with a freight binding device consisting of a rigid base to which is hingedly attached on one side upright wrapping means bendable along a plurality of vertical hinges and possibly held together by flexible cords. This reference is primarily concerned with holding together oversized or odd sized loads in a boxed like fashion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,364 (Ambrose) describes a palletless load unit wherein the lowest members of a stacked load are compressively and rigidly bound together by a strap, the upper portions of the stacked load being secured by a heat-shrinkable bag. As much as this invention may have merit with stacked loads of rather uniform dimensions, it does not seem to provide the transporter of goods to readily secure such goods in a quick and inexpensive way especially since the shrinkable bag is not recoverable.
U.S. Pat. No. Re. 31,191 (Connolly) discloses the use of plastic netting using stretch-wrapping technique, i.e. special costly wrapping equipment is required in order to essentially cover the full sides of the palletized load with a net which is nonrecoverable; such equipment and system is unsuitable for the day-to-day operation of, for instance, a distributor who has to be able to receive and re-palletize loads of various sizes quickly and easily.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,657 (Bayon) is concerned with an improved storing net for palletized loads using straps having bridging openings. This method may be suitable for unitized loads, but it is considered impractable for loads having various shapes and heights.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,409 (Slocumb) teaches also a plastic netting for tension wrapping palletized loads, wherein the strands are made from linear low density polyethylene. However, the latter material is not a rubber or elastomer and is deficient in comparison to this invention.